


Five Clues

by bettycooper



Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 11:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29998767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettycooper/pseuds/bettycooper
Summary: Amanda Bobbsey may not be a sleuth, but she can still put the pieces together.Ace & Nancy through the eyes of Amanda post-2x07
Relationships: Ace & Amanda Bobbsey, Ace & Nancy Drew, Ace/Nancy Drew, Nancy Drew & Gil Bobbsey (mention)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 67





	Five Clues

**Amanda doesn’t think much of the first clue.**

She doesn’t know the sharp-jawed sandy-haired boy in the lobby, and his appearance at the hotel has no meaning to her minus the fact that he’s cute and might be flirting with her. Poorly.

Ace.

It doesn’t take long before she’s at least able to commit the name to memory, courtesy of a one Nancy Drew. The very same Nancy Drew that had helped to save her brother just weeks prior, now hovering around her place of employment and clearly on the lookout for an answer to the mystery behind the haunted suite.

Ace shows up, he meets with Nancy, and they’re off to do whatever it is they do. Amanda doesn’t question it beyond a passing curiosity.

**The second clue comes with a definite bruise of Amanda’s ego.**

Maybe she shouldn’t have been so open about her technology issues with Nancy (or the entire lobby…), but she hadn’t known her partner-in-crime was _legitimately_ a partner-in-crime. But Ace knows computers, and when he shows up to conveniently help her with her problems, she lets him.

But not without clocking that he’s accessing the very information that she’s specifically told Nancy that she’s unable to share.

Amanda can’t help but wonder about Nancy’s tactics – sending the attractive but awkward guy out to flirt to get what she wants. Amanda and Gil had done their fair share of shady things to get what they needed in the past, but Amanda doesn’t appreciate the turning of tables. And the next time she sees Ace, she makes that clear. Her attraction to him will not be used as some pawn to get Nancy the answers she needs.

**On some level, Amanda knew she shouldn’t have even allowed for a third clue to join the pile.**

But Ace is sweet, and he is funny, and Amanda feels like she learns something new every time she’s with him. They’ve been seeing each other casually for a few weeks, and he’s even gotten her to watch a few episodes of _Downton Abbey_.

They’re in the middle of one of those episodes during a date night when Ace gets a text, and seemingly without a second thought he’s off, his “it’s Nancy” ringing in her ears long after he’s departed.

They’ve talked about it, and she knows that his work with his squad is important to him, but as she eats an entire bag of popcorn by herself she can’t help but feel like an afterthought.

**The fourth clue was the nail in the coffin.**

Once is an incident, twice coincidence, and by the third time the writing was on the wall. Amanda was sharp, keenly observant even in moments where it may seem like there was nothing to note. She’d watched Ace as different text messages came his way – from Nick, from George, even from Bess. He was always able to selectively ignore things, or at the very least not go running off the second they called. But Ace never ignored Nancy.

She’d spotted them out in public sometimes, whether with their crew or just as a pair. They were always next to each other, Nancy physically reaching out to Ace to get his attention or ask for an assist. And she knew they were having conversations about heavy topics, like any longstanding friends might. But there was a closeness there, a constant checking in that Amanda and Ace didn’t share. And _they_ had been dating for a few months.

Amanda had asked once if Nancy was okay, purely out of curiosity and genuine concern. She’d prodded past the quick “she will be” she’d received and landed straight in quick shrug and “it’s not my story to tell” territory. And yeah, Ace probably would have said that on behalf of any of his friends, but Amanda could do some basic math.

The day she’d met Ace and been subjected to his admittedly terrible flirting things with Nancy had been awkward. Why?

Ace didn’t like that Nancy had briefly been seeing Gil. Why?

It was easy to dismiss those moments as just two best friends looking out for each other, easy to dismiss the closeness as something that naturally would emerge after a life-or-death situation or two. But if there was anything Amanda had learned from her brief interactions with Nancy, it was that how things appeared wasn’t always how they really were.

And she’d gotten the distinct impression that both Nancy and Ace did not want to dig deeper and potentially unearth some truths about their relationship that couldn’t be repressed.

**The fifth clue wasn’t for her. Instead, it was one she handed over.**

Amanda was the one to initiate the breakup.

Coincidentally, it was also the one time Ace didn’t immediately just pick up and go when a text from Nancy came in.

It had been a gentle ending, the truth that had been there all along breaking free to result in a simply stated “I don’t think that you need a relationship right now. Or if you do, it’s not with me.”

He hadn’t understood, but Amanda didn’t think he would. He hadn’t been watching, putting the pieces together to work towards a conclusion. And he had definitely tried to be a good boyfriend. It wasn’t a bad relationship, and Amanda would never blame anyone for its demise, but it just wasn’t working. They owed it to each other to seek out something better.

And even if neither party involved was aware of it yet, Amanda had a strong feeling that she knew where that could be for Ace.

“Ace, I like Nancy. I owe her a lot,” she decided to say as she was already halfway out the door. She hadn’t been intending on sharing her full set of deductions with him, but she had a feeling that he’d find a way to never move in the direction that was so clearly there unless acted upon by an outside force.

“It does not take a sleuthing squad to figure it out.”

**Author's Note:**

> Amanda, girl, I know we know almost nothing about you so far so sorry if this is absolutely nothing like what you turn out to be like.


End file.
